The present invention relates to methods and devices for treating a patient at risk of loss of cardiac function by cardiac ischemia.
The following references are cited in this application, either as references pertinent to the Background of the Invention, or to methods or materials described in the Detailed Description of the Invention.
Heart disorders are a common cause of death in developed countries. They also impair the quality of life of millions of people and restrict activity by causing pain, breathlessness, fatigue, fainting spells and anxiety. The major cause of heart disease in developed countries is impaired or inadequate blood supply. The coronary arteries may become narrowed due to arteriosclerosis and part of the heart muscle is deprived of oxygen and other nutrients. The resulting ischemia or blockage can lead to angina pectoris, a pain in the chest, arms or jaw due to lack of oxygen to the heart""s myocardium, infarction or tissue necrosis in myocardial tissue. Alternatively, and particularly with age, the extent of vascularization of the heart may diminish, leaving the heart undersupplied with oxygen even in the absence of significant arteriosclerosis.
Coronary-artery blockage can be relieved in a number of ways. Drug therapy, including nitrates, beta-blockers, and peripheral vasodilator drugs (to dilate the arteries) or thrombolytic drugs (to dissolve clots) can be very effective. If drug treatment fails, transluminal angioplasty is often indicatedxe2x80x94the narrowed part of the artery, clogged with atherosclerotic plaque or other deposits, can be stretched apart by passing a balloon to the site and gently inflating it a certain degree. In the event drug therapy is ineffective or angioplasty is too risky (introduction of a balloon in an occluded artery can cause portions of the arteriosclerotic material to become dislodged which may cause a total blockage at a point downstream of the subject occlusion, thereby requiring emergency procedures), the procedure known as coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is the most common and successful major heart operation performed, with over 500,000 procedures done annually in America alone. A length of vein is removed from another part of the body. The section of vein is first sewn to the aorta and then sewn onto a coronary artery at a place such that oxygenated blood can flow directly into the heart. CABG typically is performed in an open chest surgical procedure, although recent advances suggest minimally invasive surgery (MIS) techniques may also be used.
Another method of improving myocardial blood supply is called transmyocardial revascularization (TMR), the creation of channels from the epicardial to the endocardial portions of the heart. Initially, the procedure used needles to perform xe2x80x9cmyocardial acupuncture,xe2x80x9d and has been experimented with at least as early as the 1930s and used clinically since the 1960s, see Deckelbaum, L. I., Cardiovascular Applications of Laser Technology, Lasers in Surgery and Medicine 15:315-341 (1994). This procedure has been likened to transforming the human heart into one resembling that of a reptile. In the reptile heart, perfusion occurs via communicating channels between the left ventricle and the coronary arteries. Frazier, O. H., Myocardial Revascularization with Laserxe2x80x94Preliminary Findings, Circulation, 1995; 92 [suppl II:II-58-II-65]. There is evidence of these communicating channels in the developing human embryo. In the human heart, myocardial microanatomy involves the presence of myocardial sinusoids. These sinusoidal communications vary in size and structure, but represent a network of direct arterial-luminal, arterial-arterial, arterial-venous, and venous-luminal connections. The needle technique was not continued because the channels did not remain open, replaced by the use of laser energy to accomplish TMR.
Drug therapies with angiogenic growth factors may expedite and/or augment collateral artery development. To accomplish these needs, drug transfer devices for delivering precise amounts of these drugs can enhance this healing process. Surgeons who deal with minimally invasive surgical techniques, and interventional cardiologists who deal with percutaneous approaches, need devices for drug delivery procedures. The drugs used in modern medical technology are often quite expensive, potentially mixing and/or handling sensitive, and it is a new challenge to make these drugs or other compounds readily available for precise, predetermined delivery during these advanced or other procedures.
The invention includes, in one aspect, a method of treating a patient at risk of loss of cardiac function by cardiac ischemia. The method is practiced by first imaging the patient""s heart, or a portion thereof, to identify (i) an underperfused region of cardiac muscle, (ii) a source of oxygenated blood that is proximate a boundary of the underperfused region, and (iii) a target area that includes the underperfused region boundary and a tissue expanse lying between the oxygenated blood supply and the boundary. Applying a tool at each of a plurality of sites throughout the target area to produce an annulus of injury about a core of healthy cells in the myocardial layer of the heart.
The underperfused region is an at risk region of cardiac muscle which is insufficiently perfused to handle heightened activity or is likely to be near term at risk of underperfusion due to the progression of nearby disease and cannot be treated by the full restoration of normal coronary flow.
Usually, patients will enter this treatment regiment by appearing for intermittent angina (intermittent identifies that demand for arterial growth and arterial maturation is not reliably turned on) through drug or exercise stress testing where cardiac reserve appears less than optimal or when a routine treatment such as bypass, angioplasty or stents is unable to restore normalized blood flow, and in the judgment of the cardiologist or surgeon is at risk due to lack of reserve capacity. The imaging step to identify the area at risk and nearby source of oxygenated blood (target) may be carried out by monitoring blood flow in the heart by myocardial perfusion imaging by single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), positron-emission tomography (PET), echo-planar imaging, MRI, or angiogram.
The source of oxygenated blood in the method may be one in which arteries less than about 1 mm branch into surrounding arterioles, and in which the arterioles with inner-lumen diameters between about 50-200 microns are plentiful, and the sites are spaced from one another at spacing of between 0.5 to 1 cm. Alternatively, or in addition, the underperfused region may be a myocardial region of either of the patient""s ventricles, and the source of oxygenated blood, the interior of the underperfused heart ventricle region. Here the target area includes the region of ventricle endocardium underlying the underperfused region.
A stimulus may also be introduced at each of the target-area sites in the form of a growth factor, such as basic or acidic fibroblast growth factor-1 (FGF-2, FGF-1), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), or combinations of two or more of these growth factors. The growth factor may be introduced in the form of a recombinant protein carried in a pharmaceutically acceptable medium, a vector containing the coding sequence for the growth factor and a control region effective to promote transcription of the coding region in patient myocardial cells, and/or in the form of a myocardial or cardiac myoblast cells which have been transformed with a gene encoding the growth factor. The manner of introducing the growth factor may be by (i) injecting the protein, vector of cells directly into myocardial tissue at each site, (ii) drawing the protein or vector into myocardial tissue at each site by iontophoresis from a reservoir placed against the site, (iii) forming a channel in the myocardium at each site, and placing the protein, vector or cells into the channel, or (iv) bombarding each site with a biolistic particle containing or coated with the protein, vector or cells. For example, an angiogenic stimulus would be used without adjunctive biological triggering when the target area is predetermined at the patient evaluation and diagnosis stage to have sufficient pre-existing tissue demand for oxygen in the form of significant angina (Canadian Heart Class 4) or when the physician has predetermined that the patient can exercise post treatment to provide dependable tissue demand for arteriole growth beyond the pre-existing patient reserve capacity.
In another aspect, the invention involves a tool for use in stimulating angiogenesis in a patient""s heart. The tool comprises a tapered tissue-piercing portion adapted to pierce a selected target site in the heart, and injury producing elements that are disposed or can be deployed in a 1-4 mm inner-diameter annulus about the tissue piercing portion. A handle is operatively connected to the tissue-piercing portion and injury-producing elements, for use in (i) placing the tissue-piercing portion at a selected target site outside the heart (ii) inserting the portion into the site, to a depth which disposes the injury-producing elements within the upper 1-3 mm of the myocardium, and (iii) manipulating the tool to effect an annulus of tissue injury within the myocardium.
These and other features of the invention will become more fully apparent when the following detailed description of the invention is read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.